In an epic contest, the Rangers fell 4-3 in triple overtime in Game 1 to the Penguins on Tuesday. Evgeni Malkin’s deflection snuck past Igor Shesterkin at 5:38 of the third overtime allowing Pittsburgh to prevail. New York thought they had had taken a 4-3 lead with 3:10 remaining in regulation on a goal by Filip Chytil, but that marker was overturned on goalie interference by Kaako Kappo. The two sides will rest on Wednesday before resuming the series at MSG on Thursday.
Some context, the contest was the first Stanley Cup playoff game at MSG since May 9, 2017. The first double-overtime at the Garden since April 20, 2011. Then the first triple-overtime since Game 3 of the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1)
Game flow - New York, as we expected, came out on fire to start the game. The Rangers were by far the more physical team in the opening frame, dominating action. Casey DeSmith, starting due to the injury to Tristan Jarry, helped keep the Penguins in the game. Adam Fox’s power-play goal gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 9:19 into the contest. New York built on the lead 3:08 into the second on a marker by Andrew Copp. Then it fell apart.
Larry Brooks summarized well how the tide turned:
In the first period, the Rangers were in a high gear that was impossible to contain, hitting every Penguin in sight and putting forth a relentless forecheck that left the visitors with no choice but to dump and chase. But the Rangers lost their assertiveness, and that’s where they truly lost the game.
The Rangers no longer were as straight-line. Their forecheck game — keyed by a four-line rotation that resembled rolling thunder — largely evaporated. The Blueshirts fell back into their habit of looking for the perfect play instead of getting the puck in deep or to the net. Neutral-zone turnovers resulted. Shots from the middle of the ice were passed up in favor of passes to more acute angles. Opportunities were missed.
The Penguins outshot the Rangers 25-8 in the second period and ended up with a total of 83 shots on net. That number doesn’t reflect the number of shot attempts, which was vastly higher. To expect New York to maintain that pace of play from the first 25 minutes the rest of the game was unlikely. But, the Rangers got away from what made them effective in the opening stanza, allowing the Penguins too much time and space, which they capitalized on, especially Sidney Crosby.
From the 83 shots, 32 were high-danger chances and 8.99 expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. The grid below has a slightly different figure. But the variance in expected goals shows just how good Igor was and despite getting 68 shots on net, a large number of those chances came from either far away or not in high-danger areas.
2)
Goaltending - probably not enough superlatives to describe how brilliant
Shesterkin’s performance was. First playoff game ever. Madison Square Garden. Facing Crosby and Malkin. Wave after wave of shots. Triple overtime. He pretty much did everything but win.
If there were any concerns that he would be nervous, those were dispelled early and often. Shesterkin stood up to the barrage he faced and didn’t flinch. He took contact while in net, dealt with traffic in front and made save after save. If you want to nitpick, maybe he could have been slightly higher in the crease on the game-winning tally to blunt the deflection, but that’s really reaching.
Shesterkin set a franchise record for saves in a game with 79 in the loss. It was also the second most saves in NHL history behind Columbus’ Joonas Korpisalo set on August 11, 2020 against Tampa Bay. A brilliant performance, just a brutal ending.
On the other side of the ice, DeSmith was solid. Enabled the Penguins to stay in the game in the first and remain in the contest throughout. He left the game in the second overtime for reasons not yet revealed. Speculation ranges from upper body injury, including a concussion, or lower body injury, potentially cramping, which would make sense given the length of the game.
Stepping into the breach was Louie Domingue who stopped all 17 shots he faced. New York didn’t make it hard on him, until that last sequence in the third overtime. Steve Valiquette has talked about allowing a goalie to get into the contest by him making easy saves rather than having to wait around and be forever to make one tough one. For all the talk about getting shots on net and challenging Domingue when he came in. The three outside softball shots he faced right away likely enabled Domingue to get into the flow of the contest after having sat for almost four hours.
3) Coming into the game, we spoke of the need to shut down
Crosby and Malkin but the concern also regarding Jake Guenzel and Bryan Rust. Sure enough, that grouping of Pitt players were major components in the Penguins win. The advanced stats show just how dominant Crosby was, which led to the massive production by his line.
Crosby, given way too much room and respect by the Rangers, controlled play all night, as Brooks noted.The Guentzel-Crosby-Rust played 25:25 together in Game 1, amassing a 71.67 pct of five-on-five attempts with a 72.73 percent shot share and an ungodly 78.96 xGF rate playing against an elite opponent. In real numbers, they out-attempted their opponents 44 to 16. Guentzel scored twice 7:15 apart in the second period to tie the game, assisted by Crosby and Rust on each. Rust later scored a PPG to tie the score at 3 late in the period. Crosby finished with two helpers, Guentzel the two goals and Rust with a goal and two assists.
Gerald Gallant’s challenge will be finding a line that can match up against Crosby’s. Whoever he tried yesterday failed at that assignment. Mika Zibanejad was tasked with that role for a good portion of the game and didn’t go a particularly good job. In addition, the defensive pairings need to do a better job of marking Crosby.
4)
Artemi Panarin had a tough night, bottled up much of the time, often trying to force the issue. Just two shots on net in 10 attempts in 34:10 of ice time for Panarin. Watching the game, and from the texts from a friend of mine at he contest, Panarin liked either unwilling or unable to shoot the puck, preferring to skate on the fringes and try and creat chances. You can’t help but wonder if the upper body injury that sidelined him at the end of the season is worse that they let on, as had been rumored, and he can’t get any strength on the shot. Whatever the reason for the performance, Panarin, who looked frustrated, needs to be a lot better in Game 2.
His linemates, Ryan Strome and Copp had solid performance, each creating multiple opportunities. Strome had a golden chance in the second overtime, but either wasn’t expecting the pass from Fox or just flubbed the shot with a wide open net. But he and Copp had much better games than their more talented linemate.
5)
Defense -
Ryan Lindgren went to the locker room just before the third period started, then returned during a TV timeout to skate and see how he felt before retreating back to the dressing room. The Rangers’ top-pair defenseman took two shifts in the third period and competed in much of the first and second overtimes but did not participate in the final extra period after falling awkwardly into the boards following a hit from Kasperi Kapanen. His absence forced the team to go with five defensemen, requiring Patrik Nemeth to take on more responsibility and juggling of the pairs much of the second half of the contest.
K’Andre Miller was by far the Rangers best blueliner. Other than one hellacious bad turnover on an attempted clear up the middle of the ice that Crosby intercepted and turned into a high-danger chance, he was brilliant. Physical, active with the stick - blunting several chances - pinching when needed, Miller did it all. An impressive performance by any blueliner, let alone one in his first playoff game.
Nemeth and Schneider were okay, shaky at times. Same in my opinion with Lindgren, who for large portions of the game handled the puck like it was a hand grenade and looked like the moment was too big for him. I thought Justin Braun was going to get in Thursday regardless of the final score, given the length of the game. But the injury to Lindgren may force Gallant’s hand. If Lindgren can go, Braun should be for Nemeth.
On the game-winning goal, Nemeth and Schneider were on the ice. Igor needed to move the puck initially faster there, as the slight delay gave Pittsburgh additional time to get in on the forecheck. Played off the boards too slow by Nemeth and pressure by Penguins on Schneider created the turnover with Chytil unable to move the puck. No one marked Malkin in front of the net. Sequence came after Rangers failed on golden chance
6)
The Kid Line - Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko were strong throughout, when several good chances besides the overturned goal. The trio was possibly the team’s second best unit besides the second line, who were propelled Strome and Copp. All three had solid games, within the only negative, Chytil’s performance bwyeeen the dots. If the unit plays in Game 2 as they did in Game 1, New York should be in pretty good shape.
Ryan Reaves dressed over Dryden Hunt. Reaves was hitting everyone on ye first period. But his inability to create offensively was very evident throughout the game. He had several chances to set up his linemates following a strong forecheck, but couldn’t do so to his limitations in handling the puck. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hunt plays Game 2. Boy did the Rangers miss the injured Tyler Motte in this game.
7)
Overturned goal - based on strict definition and interpretation of Rule 69.1, it would appear the right call was made. Thought that is based on the interpretation of 1 and 2 below and not fully considering the portion in blood. In addition, the decision presupposes that Kakko would have been unable to avoid making contact with DeSmith if Brian Dumoulin didn’t touch him.
1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or 2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. But here is the key: if an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with the goalkeeper, such contact will not be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.“
Kakko was on his edges coming across the crease. The contact by Dumoulin clearly looked to force him forward, preventing him from changing his angle and avoid contact. On the replay, fairly clear that Dumoulin checked Kakko which is why he was unable to avoid contact. In addition, as noted above, this also presupposes that Kakko would not have been able to avoid DeSmith, so the situation room is interpreting intent. The replay should work like in the NFL. Unless there is conclusive evidence a call should be overturned, then the call on the ice should stand. This certainly looked to be one of those cases, even though contact was certainly made by Kakko on DeSmith. But the league didn’t see it that way and a good portion of Twitter as well, so maybe I am the one in the wrong
8) Pittsburgh will come into
Game 2 with all the momentum. They took New York’s best shot early and withstood that pressure, only being down a goal after one. After trailing 2-0, they rallied to tie the game, carrying play, putting the Rangers on their heels and showing a path forward on what style to deploy. The Penguins were forced to use their third goalie and came out with a victory. Home ice has been stolen and all the pressure is on New York to win Game 2.
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New York Rangers Blogger • 
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